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Spreadability
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Spreadability
In media studies and marketing, spreadability is the wide distribution and circulation of information on media platforms.
Spreadability contrasts with the "stickiness" of aggregating media in centralized places. The original copy of the (textual, visual, audio) information does not need to be replicated perfectly in order to display the characteristics of spreadability, rather the original can be manipulated or maintained in its original form and still be a product of this process. Simply, this concept refers to the capability of media being spread.
The first book which disseminated the concept of "spreadability" for media studies and marketing was Spreadable Media (2013) by media academics and industry experts Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green. This spreadability concept emerged in the development of a 2008 white paper, "If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead: Creating Value in a Spreadable Marketplace" authored by Jenkins, Xiaochang Li, and Ana Domb Krauskopf, with assistance from Green.
The concept "refers to the potential – both technical and cultural – for audiences to share content for their own purposes, sometimes with the permission of rights holders, sometimes against their wishes". It is contextualised in the media landscape due to the strong connection with quick and easy sharing practices which have been enabled by media platforms. After Jenkins coined this term (in a rather optimistic context) many authors such as Christian Fuchs have interpreted this movement through a more pessimistic lens.
Spreadability is directly linked to "participatory culture" (a concept coined by Jenkins). Participatory culture is the backbone to spreadability as it depicts an image of people who are "shaping, sharing, reframing, and remixing media content". This culture is based on grass-root audience practices online. In other words, any user of a platform (that provides sharing possibilities) is emancipated as an individual who can informally, and instantaneously share information online. It is also important how the participatory culture and the act of sharing online "tends to be a communal act of giving and taking that links us to other people".
Jenkins situates spreadability in a particular context. This concept is particularly contextualised in the social media era and the Web 2.0 culture. These two transformations can be considered prerequisites for the idea of spreadability to exist and for spreadable media to adopt such mechanisms to achieve spreadability.
This new culture began at the beginning of the second millennium when the internet became an interactive space. This means there was a need for a platform or platforms where users could contribute and share information. Belk says this is how the "Internet and especially Web 2.0 has brought about many new ways of sharing as well as facilitating older forms of sharing on a large-scale".
There is a strong emphasis on content production, but more concretely, user-generated content production. This is where the importance of social media (an effect of the Web 2.0) is relevant. Spreadable media is only possible when there is a platform where the content can be shared. As Jenkins puts it, "spreadability emphasizes producing content in easy-to-share formats […] which makes it easier to spread videos [or any other material] across the Internet, and encouraging access points to that content in a variety of places". Furthermore, as a result of this sharing community, the public has become more individually and collectively literate about social platforms and their ability to construct identities online.
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Spreadability
In media studies and marketing, spreadability is the wide distribution and circulation of information on media platforms.
Spreadability contrasts with the "stickiness" of aggregating media in centralized places. The original copy of the (textual, visual, audio) information does not need to be replicated perfectly in order to display the characteristics of spreadability, rather the original can be manipulated or maintained in its original form and still be a product of this process. Simply, this concept refers to the capability of media being spread.
The first book which disseminated the concept of "spreadability" for media studies and marketing was Spreadable Media (2013) by media academics and industry experts Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green. This spreadability concept emerged in the development of a 2008 white paper, "If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead: Creating Value in a Spreadable Marketplace" authored by Jenkins, Xiaochang Li, and Ana Domb Krauskopf, with assistance from Green.
The concept "refers to the potential – both technical and cultural – for audiences to share content for their own purposes, sometimes with the permission of rights holders, sometimes against their wishes". It is contextualised in the media landscape due to the strong connection with quick and easy sharing practices which have been enabled by media platforms. After Jenkins coined this term (in a rather optimistic context) many authors such as Christian Fuchs have interpreted this movement through a more pessimistic lens.
Spreadability is directly linked to "participatory culture" (a concept coined by Jenkins). Participatory culture is the backbone to spreadability as it depicts an image of people who are "shaping, sharing, reframing, and remixing media content". This culture is based on grass-root audience practices online. In other words, any user of a platform (that provides sharing possibilities) is emancipated as an individual who can informally, and instantaneously share information online. It is also important how the participatory culture and the act of sharing online "tends to be a communal act of giving and taking that links us to other people".
Jenkins situates spreadability in a particular context. This concept is particularly contextualised in the social media era and the Web 2.0 culture. These two transformations can be considered prerequisites for the idea of spreadability to exist and for spreadable media to adopt such mechanisms to achieve spreadability.
This new culture began at the beginning of the second millennium when the internet became an interactive space. This means there was a need for a platform or platforms where users could contribute and share information. Belk says this is how the "Internet and especially Web 2.0 has brought about many new ways of sharing as well as facilitating older forms of sharing on a large-scale".
There is a strong emphasis on content production, but more concretely, user-generated content production. This is where the importance of social media (an effect of the Web 2.0) is relevant. Spreadable media is only possible when there is a platform where the content can be shared. As Jenkins puts it, "spreadability emphasizes producing content in easy-to-share formats […] which makes it easier to spread videos [or any other material] across the Internet, and encouraging access points to that content in a variety of places". Furthermore, as a result of this sharing community, the public has become more individually and collectively literate about social platforms and their ability to construct identities online.